About Us

Marvin Cable Tailpieces is a US business that designs and
creates cable tailpieces for bowed string instruments. The
company was founded by Kevin Marvin from Burlington
Vermont, USA.  Kevin is a bass player who, like most bass
players, is constantly searching for ways to improve the
sound and playability of his bass.

The Product
The Marvin cable tailpiece was developed to eliminate the
negative impact of the tailpiece on the instrument's sound.  
This design assumes that the most significant sound of the
instrument emanates from the body and top table.  In order
to maximize the sound it is important to maximize the
vibrational energy going from the string to the top table
through the bridge.  The traditional tailpiece reduces this
energy by muting the vibrations of the string.

The most common source of tonal inconsistency in string
instruments is the tailpiece and string afterlength between
the bridge and tailpiece.  These inconsistencies, also known
as wolf tones, are caused by the pitch of the tailpiece
vibration and the vibration of the string afterlengths.  These
pitches impact the vibration of the string to create dead and
enhanced pitches.  Traditionally, the best luthers use many
methods to tune the tailpiece and afterlength pitches to
reduce or change the wolf tones.  The Marvin Cable Tailpiece
eliminates all wolf tones originating from the tailpiece.  The
reduced mass of this tailpiece, the individual cables per string
and the buffering of the cables against vibration accomplish
this.

A second issue with traditional instrument tailpieces is that
the bridge vibrates unevenly due to the reduced elasticity on
the tailpiece side of the bridge and the stabilizing effect of
the traditional tailpiece attachment.  The thin cables of the
Marvin tailpiece provide additional elasticity to provide a more
even vibration of the bridge.  A single braided cable passing
over the saddle reduces the stabilizing impact of the
traditional 2 cables on the bridge and thus allowing more
even bridge movement.

So why were traditional tailpieces ever developed if they
created all of these problems?  Tailpieces were initially
developed primarily as a place to attach the strings, originally
gut strings.  The inconsistency of traditional gut strings
required something to control the overtones created by this
inconsistency.  Therefore the tailpiece was used and
adjusted  by the luthier to meet the sound needs of
traditional strings.  Modern steel strings are of more
consistent in material and manufacture.  Therefore modern
strings do not need the muting of the tailpiece to control the
overtones.  Newer synthetic and steel core strings allow the
player, by choice of strings, to adjust the sound of the
instrument.  Therefore the traditional tailpiece is not needed
with modern steel strings.

About Us / The Product